Human Rights Watch on November 13 published a briefing paper on torture in Chechnya that it had prepared for the 37th session of the United Nations Committee against Torture. The paper covered torture by personnel of the Second Operational Investigative Bureau (ORB-2), torture by units... MORE

Several Russian newspapers reported that a worsening security situation in Chechnya (see Andrei Smirnov’s article below) is lessening the likelihood that Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov will replace Alu Alkhanov as the republic’s president. Other media, however, reported that Kadyrov continues to strengthen his position... MORE

--PROSECTUORS WANT 7 YEARS FOR PRO-SEPARATIST JOURNALIST Prosecutors are demanding a seven-year prison sentence for Boris Stomakhin, editor of Radikalnaya politika and a contributing author to the pro-separatist Kavkaz-Center website, who is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and extremism in articles he wrote criticizing the... MORE

The recent ambush of an OMON special police detachment by Chechen rebels in the mountainous Sharoi district and the recent flurry of alarming statements by Russian generals (Chechnya Weekly, November 9) have prompted the Russian media to focus again on the military situation in Chechnya.... MORE

Chechen rebels ambushed an OMON special police detachment from the Republic of Mordovia on the outskirts of the village of Dai in Chechnya’s Sharoi district on November 7, killing seven men, Novye izvestia reported on November 9. According to the newspaper, the rebels fired on... MORE

A driver for the head of the criminal investigation unit of the police department in Ingushetia’s Sunzhensky district was wounded when unidentified attackers fired on his car, Itar-Tass reported on November 9. It was the second attack apparently targeting policemen in the district in two... MORE

On November 7, Umar Dzhabrailov, Chechnya’s representative in the Federation Council and a close ally of Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, urged another close Kadyrov ally, Chechen People’s Assembly speaker Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, to initiate a measure calling on Kadyrov to become the republic’s president, thereby... MORE

--THOUSANDS OF CHECHENS FACE FOOD AID CUTOFF United Press International reported on November 6 that nearly 250,000 people in Chechnya face a cutoff of United Nations food aid as the republic faces another bitterly cold winter and rising rates of tuberculosis. “Donor countries say the... MORE

Russian generals continue to stun the public with sensational statements about the situation in Chechnya. A month ago Colonel-General Yevgeny Baryaev, the commander of the Russian military group in Chechnya, predicted that early November could be very unstable because “the number of acts of sabotage,... MORE

A Congress of Chechen Peoples was held in Grozny on October 31, during which Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov was elected chairman of the Assembly of Chechen Peoples. But while many of Kadyrov’s supporters had expressed hope prior to the congress that the gathering would... MORE